Acquet was in reality an adventurer.  If we were to take account here of all the evil deeds he is credited with, we should be suspected of wantonly blackening the character of this melodramatic figure.  A few facts gathered by the Combrays will serve to describe him.  As an officer at Lille he was about to be imprisoned as the result of an odious accusation, but deserted and escaped to Belgium, not daring to join the army of the emigres.  He stopped at Mons, then went to the west of France, and became a Chouan, but politics had nothing to do with this act.  He associated himself with some bravos of his stripe, and plundered travellers, and levied contributions on the purchasers of national property.  In the Eure, where he usually pursued his operations, he assassinated with his own hand two defenceless gamekeepers whom his little band had encountered.

He delighted in taking the funds of the country school-teachers, and to give a colour of royalism to the deed, he would nightly tear down the trees of liberty in the villages in which he operated.  Tired at last of “an occupation where there was nothing but blows to receive, and his head to lose,” he went to seek his fortune in Rouen; and before he presented himself to Mme. de Combray, had without doubt made enquiries.  He knew he would find a rich heiress, whose two brothers, emigrated, would probably never return, and from the first he set to work to flatter the royalist hobby of the mother, and the romantic imagination of the young girl.  Pere Lemercier was himself conquered; Acquet, to catch him, pretended the greatest piety and most scrupulous devotion.

A note of Bonnoeil’s informs us of the way this tragic intrigue ended.  “Acquet employed every means of seduction to attain his end.  The young girl, fearing to remain long unmarried because of the unhappy times, listened to him, in spite of the many reasons for waiting and for refusing the proposals of a man whose name, country and fortune were unknown to them.  The mother’s advice was unfortunately not heeded, and she found herself obliged to consent to the marriage, the laws of that period giving the daughters full liberty, and authorising them to shake off the salutary parental yoke.”

The dates of certain papers complete the discreet periphrases of Bonnoeil.  The truth is that Acquet “declared his passion” to Mlle. de Combray and as she, a little doubtful though well-disposed to allow herself to be loved, still hesitated, the Chevalier signed a sort of mystic engagement dated January 1, 1796, where, “in sight of the Holy Church and at the pleasure of God,” he pledged himself to marry her on demand.  She carefully locked up this precious paper, and a little less than ten months later, the 17th October, the municipal agent of Aubevoye, in which is situated the Chateau of Tournebut, inscribed the birth of a daughter, born to the citizeness Louise-Charlotte de Combray, “wife of the citizen Louis Acquet.”  Here, then, is the reason that the Marquise “found herself obliged to consent to the marriage,” which did not take place until the following year, mention of it not being made in the registry of Rouen until the date 17th June, 1797.